There’s nothing like fresh bread with dinner, but I don’t know anyone who has time to make a fresh yeast rolls every night. So for the nights when you’re short on time, these Rosemary Pepper Drop Biscuits have you covered. They’re the easiest of easy dinner side dish because there’s no kneading, shaping, or cutting. Just mix, drop, and bake!
What is a Drop Biscuit?
Drop biscuits are a really simple type of quickbread with a free-form dough that is just dropped by the spoonful onto a baking sheet rather than being rolled and cut like a traditional biscuit. They have a wonderfully rustic shape that creates tons of nooks and crannies in the top, perfect for brushing with butter.
What to Serve with Drop Biscuits
I like to serve these Rosemary Pepper Drop Biscuits with any type of soup, stew, or chili, but they’re also amazing with a little slather of butter and a drizzle of honey! That honey-pepper-rosemary combo is TO DIE FOR. Try them with my Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup or Chicken Stew!
Rosemary Pepper Drop Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour ($0.21)
- 2 tsp baking powder ($0.08)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 1 tsp dried rosemary ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper ($0.03)
- 1 tsp sugar ($0.02)
- 8 Tbsp cold butter (salted) ($0.88)
- 1 cup milk ($0.33)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Roughly chop or crush the rosemary to prevent large, sharp pieces. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, rosemary, pepper, sugar) until well combined.
- Take the butter out of the refrigerator just prior to using it. Slice the butter into pieces, then add them to the dry ingredients. Work the butter into the flour mixture until no large pieces remain and it looks a little like damp sand. I use my hands for this, but you can also use a pastry cutter.
- Starting with 3/4 cup, add just enough milk to moisten the mixture into a thick, slightly sticky dough (see photos below). There should be no dry flour left on the bottom of the bowl, but the dough should not be so wet that it appears glossy. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop 8 dollops of the biscuit dough onto the paper (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup each).
- Bake the biscuits in the fully preheated 400ºF oven for 18-22 minutes or until they are golden brown on the edges. Serve warm.
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Nutrition
Love Drop Biscuits? Try our Cheddar Drop Biscuits or Ranch Drop Biscuits, too!
How to Make Rosemary Pepper Drop Biscuits – Step By Step Photos
Begin preheating the oven to 400ºF. Chop or crush 1 tsp dried rosemary, so there aren’t any large sharp pieces in your biscuits.
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt, the crushed rosemary, about 1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper, and 1 tsp sugar. Stir until these ingredients are well combined.
Cut 8 Tbsp of cold butter into chunks, then add them to the flour mixture. work the butter into the flour mixture (either using your hands or a pastry cutter) until no large pieces remain and the mixture looks a little like damp sand.
Starting with just 3/4 cup, add just enough milk to the flour mixture to make a slightly sticky dough (should be between 3/4 and 1 cup total).
There should be no dry flour left on the bottom of the bowl, but the dough should not be so wet that it looks glossy.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and drop dollops of the biscuit dough onto the baking sheet. Each dollop should be about 1/3 to 1/2 cup in volume.
Bake the Rosemary Pepper Drop Biscuits for 18-22 minutes, or until they are golden brown on the edges. Serve warm!
Love these! I had some homemade gravy left over from another recipe that was too good to let go to waste, so I whipped up these biscuits to go with it. Absolutely divine! I also think they’re good with honey, as recommended. These will definitely be in my regular rotation from now on!
Awesome! Made these plain and they are great!
Beth: this is my second time making these. I made a vegan version with almond milk… Fantastic! I have never been excited for a cookbook to come out, but I can’t wait to get yours!
I wanted to let you know that wherever I brought them as a Party snack or as a side dish for a soup I’ve been asked for the recipe.
People can’t believe that they are that easy to make.
I also add 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, which makes them even richer.
Thank you for them
Easy and I was able to use the rosemary I’ve been growing. Thank you, Beth.
OMG! so easy to make, yet so amazingly delicious. Just when we thought we wouldn’t have any bread for our soup last night, we came across this recipe.
We didn’t even have enough butter so we had to cut the recipe in half. We didn’t even have any milk so we used water instead. We did use fresh rosemary.
They still rocked!! thank you
I’m supposed to bring “rolls” tomorrow for Xmas Eve family lunch, but these will be a huge surprise! I went with Italian seasoning and onion and garlic powder and added a bit of sharp cheddar cheese and added lemon juice to the milk to make buttermilk. Good lawd they’re good! I’ll be lucky if they survive until the morning, luckily they’re easy enough to make another quick batch if necessary
Made these for Thanksgiving and they rocked! The dough froze well (made it the night before and popped them in the oven today).
So you are able to freeze these before they’re baked, and they come out well? I make freezer meals with a group and I don’t want them to be a bust.
Thanks!
I know you can definitely freeze them after baking, but I haven’t tried freezing them before baking. Normal biscuits can be frozen before baking, but this dough is more like a paste. I think it will still work if you just drop scoops of it onto a parchment lined baking sheet, freeze them like that, then transfer them to a freezer bag after they’re hard.
i’ll try that! i feel like that might have been the issue, now that i think about it. also i had a heck of a time getting the butter and flour mixed together using my hands. so i used a fork for a bit. my arms got a work out, that’s for sure!
oh, and i tried them with honey and it was fantastic!
Anon – it sounds like maybe your batter was too wet? Maybe. Try adding just a bit less milk next time and hopefully they’ll hold their shape! :)
i made these for thanksgiving today and they were very tasty, but didn’t come out looking anything like yours. i followed the recipe exactly, except for the fact that i left out the sugar, but my version of these came out really flat and wide. i can’t figure out why!
Not sure if my last message went through, but I have an update already! Just made these and they were SO EASY! I used all white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose (I’m switching to eating all whole grains), used unsweetened organic soymilk and also omitted the tsp of sugar. I couldn’t wait more than a minute after these were out of the oven to taste test! I drizzled a little honey on half and devoured it! Thank you for the recipe!
How do you think these would turn out using all white whole wheat flour? maybe a little dense? I’m going to try it out and I’ll report back! :)
Quite possibly THE best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth ;)
I totally thought you were crazy putting honey on them. It looked so gross but I gave it a try because I owe you for your time and dedication to this great website. My wife and I tried it together and were both FLOORED at how amazing it was. Thank you.